International seminar

“Economically viable beef cattle farming

for biodiversity and clean environment”Baltezers, 2013

High Quality Beef from High Nature

Value Grasslands

Pasture Beef

Anna Jamieson

Coordinator WWF Pasture Beef

Riga 11/4 2013

Semi natural pastures – conservation

and agriculture working as one

• 25 % of vascular plants

• 60 % of the butterflies

• Powerful carbon sink

• Recreational value

• But - only 5 % remains and disappearing fast

• 25 % of vascular plants

• 60 % of the butterflies

• Powerful carbon sink

• Recreational value

• But - only 5 % remains and disappearing fast

Degree of disturbance

The need for grazing

The Baltic Sea is dying…

…and the way we produce beef affects the sea

Predominate system Pasture Beef system

Intensively grain fed

Low proportion of grass in

diet

Extensively reared on

grazing and hay/silage

Many dairy bull calves Bullocks and heifers

Housed all year round Grazing 6-8 months/year

Old fashioned manure

handling systems

New operation =>

modernized manure

systems

20 years of Swedish

Pasture Beef experience

•Local and nationwide

•High quality product

•Quality assured

The ingredients ...

A unique

product

• Taste

• Environment

• Health

• Production criteria in a

Quality assurance scheme

• Price

Beef Quality

• Juiciness

• Tenderness

• Flavour

• Health issues

• Local identity

• Animal welfare

• Climate and nature

• Hygienic aspects

A short cut to quality –

intra muscular fat a.k.a Marbling

How do we achieve this?

• It takes time

• It takes food/nutrition

• It comes easier to

bullocks and heifers

• Some breeds do it more

readily than others

Gives flavour and juiciness

The importance of added value

• 15-20% added value to the carcass produces as much

return to the farmer/ha grazing land as the EU

environmental support for the same amount of land

• The combination is a very powerful market driven

conservation mechanism !

Swedish Pasture beef

Criterias

• Heifers, steers and young

cows

• Grazed on semi natural

pastures 50 %

• Farm has 50 % semi

natural grassland

• Well marbled

• Beef is matured 14 days

The ingredients for success...

WWF

Beef farmers

•Fencing grants

•Land tenure

•Political game rules

•Pride and Attention

Food chain

•Abattoirs

•Meat

cutters/packers

•Retailers

•Wholesalers

•Public procurers

Ambassadors

• Foodie Journalists

• Top Chefs

• Farmers

• Opinion makers

The meat delivery chain is long…

…and full of “wolves” and pitfalls!

The ingredients for success...

One way of addressing the finances

© WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey

…and it did sometimes

feel like this!

Unwilling meat processors

Uninterested farmers

Unknowledgeable consumers

Unsupportive retailers

The most important ingredient for

success...

Victories

• 40 000 ha SNP restored (> 10

% total acreage SNP)

• Pasture Beef on the shelves of

ICA – largest retailer in Sweden

• Pasture Beef is favoured by top

chefs in Sweden

• Environmentally conscious

consumers know what pasture

beef is and stands for

• Quality assurance scheme in

place gives increased access to

public procurement

Challenges

• Market access is still difficult –

the meat industry is slow to pick

up

• Copy cat products without QA

• Production volume needs to

increase to get out of the niche

and in to the mainstream

• Retailers need to put monetary

value on corporate responsibility

• EU rules creates uncertainty for

farmers

So how are we doing?

Latvian Beef

• What is important to

the Latvian consumer?

• What are you going to

produce?

• Choose a few quality

aspects and concentrate

your work and marketing

on them

Choice of production model

It depends on the type of

farm...

• Grazing or not

• Type of grazing

• Housing

• Labour

• Feed

...and the animals

available.

• Suckler cows

• Bought in calves

• Type of breed

• Bulls, heifers, steers.

But most important of all – is to make a

choice and work accordingly!

The difference between dairy

and beef breeds

• Carcass confirmation

and fat content

• Milkproduction

• Growth rate and feed

efficiency

• Marbleing

• Tenderness?

Beef

breed

Dairy

breed

If your farm looks like this...

• ...how can you produce

quality beef?

Or if your farm looks like this...

• ...how can you produce

quality beef?

Does tenderness influence the

consumers willingness to pay?

Any questions? Please ask away!